


A Bird In The Hand

by sysrae



Series: Hale At Heart [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - No Werewolves, Asshat Peter Hale, BAMF Stiles, Declarations Of Love, Derek is a Softie, Established Relationship, Feelings, Fluff, Laura's POV, M/M, Meet the Family, Tattooed Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 07:25:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3641724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sysrae/pseuds/sysrae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek and Stiles have been dating for two months, but Laura is still suspicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bird In The Hand

**Author's Note:**

> A very kind reader made a photomanip for this series! You can find it here: https://faladrast.tumblr.com/post/170043586354/here-is-another-awesome-two-stories-that-i-decided

Suspicion and curiosity were vital instincts in a detective, and Laura Hale had both in spades. They were, she considered, non-negotiables of the profession – or at least, of doing it properly – and growing up with four younger siblings had taught her to use them well. Not, of course, that her sisters and brother ever thanked her for it, but that was hardly surprising. Younger siblings were like perpetual rookies in the precinct of Laura's life: no matter how promisingly they developed, seniority would always be hers forever and ever, amen, their secrets and youthful indiscretions a currency she could spend or hoard as she chose.

Which is why when her brother suddenly announced, after literal years of surly, wary singleness, that he was dating someone called Stiles – no first name, no last name; just  _ Stiles _ , like the kid was a pop star – Laura felt a surge of protective outrage. Bad enough that he'd apparently settled on the guy after spending a single night at his house in ridiculous circumstances; he'd seemingly told Stiles things about himself within the first twenty-four hours that Laura would've sworn on her badge that Derek would never voluntarily disclose to anyone, let alone a virtual stranger. That he'd actually  _ put Stiles on the phone with her _ when she called to chew him out was an act of brazen confidence so uncharacteristic, she'd been literally shocked into incoherence. Neither man had sounded high, but the last time Derek had got the better of her like that, he'd been the nine-year-old executor of his first and only successful April Fool's Day prank, and in the moment, Laura had been hard-pressed to think of what else could account for it.

Ordinarily, she'd have called their sisters and mother as first order of business, the better to gain consensus on what Derek might be up to. But then her work phone had blown up with calls about a triple homicide, suspect at still large, and she'd become so busy that, even with the best of big sisterly intentions, it was another two weeks before she had the time or energy to do anything about it.

Which is when she got her second shock. She'd known, of course, that Derek's longtime housemate, Boyd, was moving out – he'd told her so himself, the night of the epic storm, when he'd called to see if she knew where her brother was – and had dutifully filed the information away. What she hadn't known, and was once again rendered speechless to discover, was that Derek 'I Overthink Literally Everything And Have More Trust Issues Than The Titantic Around Icebergs' Hale – her cautious, sullen, miserable baby brother – was cheerfully moving in with the man he'd only just met. With  _ Stiles _ , whose real name Laura still didn't know, and that – that, to bastardise  _ The Big Lebowski _ , the Dude  _ would not abide _ . 

'Laura, would you quit freaking out?' said Derek, the eyeroll clearly audible even over the phone. 'I need a housemate. He needs a housemate. Yeah, it's soon, but the alternative for both of us is taking a chance on a random stranger or trying to fly solo, and why the hell are you so worked up about this, anyway? Haven't you spent the past five years trying to set me up with someone?'

'That's not the point!' snapped Laura. (It may have been at least eighty percent of the point.) 'Derek, you barely know the guy! Have you even told mom and dad you're dating again?'

'You mean you haven't?' said Derek, sounding surprised. 

Laura grit her teeth. 'I've been busy.'

'Huh! Well, that explains the lack of meddling phonecalls. I guess that means you didn't tell anyone else, either?'

'What am I, a PA system?'

'Usually, yeah,' said Derek, dryly. 'I mean, you can hardly blame me for assuming you'd pass on the news, though like I said, it does explain the uncharacteristic lack of familial nagging.'

'Uncharacteristic!' said Laura, pouncing on the word. 'That's what you're being, Derek –  _ uncharacteristic _ . And it worries me, OK? I worry about you.' She bit her lip, then said, more gently. 'I just don't want to see you get hurt again.'

Derek huffed angrily. 'Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence. Jesus, you're unbelievable – ever since Jennifer, you've been on at me to find someone, and now that I have, you're acting like it's a crime against common sense! And you know what? I think you're just pissed that you didn't get to choose Stiles for me, so that you could subject my future  _ mate _ –' he spat the word; an old and unusually ugly reference to the sourwolf joke, '– to your personal vetting process.'

'Derek!' Laura said, as horrified by his distress as by the discomforting fact that he had a point. 'You know I'm just trying to look out for you –'

'Yeah, well, you might want to try being supportive,' Derek snarked. 'I hear it works wonders – what?' This last in a different tone, and not directed at her. There was the garbled sound of someone else speaking, followed by a heavy sigh from Derek. 'Stiles wants to speak to you,' he said, and before Laura could adequately process this development, she heard the phone being put onto speaker again.

'Hey, Laura,' said Stiles. He had a pleasantly scratchy voice, full of quick inflections and popped p's; even though they'd only spoken the once, he still sounded wholly distinctive. 'Listen, I know we haven't exactly met, but I promise you, I have no intention of ever hurting your brother. Plus, and as much as he doesn't want to talk about it, you ought to know that Kate's lawyer-publicist person called about a half hour ago to ask if he'd sign off on the manuscript for her stupid book. So, you know. Raw nerves.'

Laura's stomach churned. 'Oh, fuck.'

'Pretty much,' said Derek. He sounded weary. 'I'm sorry, Laura. I shouldn't have snapped. I just – I need you to understand how important this is to me.'

'OK,' said Laura, because she wasn't completely heartless, and even if she'd wanted to argue the point, Stiles was  _ right there _ . 'I'm sorry about Kate, though. You need me to get involved?'

'No, it's all right. I can manage.'

'All right.' She rubbed her forehead, suppressing a sigh. 'Listen, I can't get away to come see you or I would, but next month is mom's birthday, and dad's roped me into organising a big shindig at the house. You should bring Stiles along.'

'Of course,' said Derek, just as Stiles said, 'I wouldn't miss it.'

'Done, then,' said Laura, and hung up.

 

*

 

The weeks leading up to Talia Hale's fifty-fifth birthday flew by in a blur of arrests, paperwork and Skype sessions with her sisters, all of whom had an opinion about the party – and about Derek, who was, by longstanding agreement, disqualified from organisational duties on the grounds of total incompetence. Once Laura had finally fulfilled her elder sibling prerogative of telling the family that Derek was no longer single, the gossip had flown thick and fast. Cora, infuriatingly, had actually met Stiles: she'd driven down for their housewarming party, and was (Laura suspected) being deliberately coy when it came to sharing her first impressions, the better to lord her knowledge over the rest of them.

'He has sleeve tattoos,' she said, during their penultimate planning session, when Elsa asked whether Stiles was likely to stick out or fit in at a gathering that was otherwise Hale-and-family-friends only. 'Really nice ones, actually. So, I mean, he'd probably stand out anyway, but he's an easygoing guy. I don't think we need to worry.'

'He has  _ tattoos _ ?' said Laura, who wasn't about to let the detail slip.

Malia snorted. 'What, like it matters? Derek's got his triskele, and I've got one or two.'

'Really?' said Elsa, sceptical as ever. 'Then how come we've never seen them?'

'Because,' said Malia, grinning. ' _ You _ don't see me naked.'

Elsa made a face. 'Too much information!'

'Oh, come on, sis,' said Malia. 'Just let it –'

'So help me, if you finish that sentence, I'll chainsaw your favourite snowboard.'

Several minutes of bickering followed, during which Cora and Laura exchanged knowing looks, until the conversation finally swung back to Derek, Stiles and the party. 

'They've been together for nearly two months now,' Malia pointed out. 'And honestly, I know I haven't met him yet, either, but Derek hasn't been this relaxed in – well, ever. I mean, I accidentally butt-dialed him from a bar at 3am the other week, and all he did was text me to ask if I was having a good time. No growling, no lectures – nothing.'

'Huh,' said Elsa, thoughtfully. 

'That doesn't necessarily mean anything,' Laura said, somewhat peevishly. 'If he was already awake, he wouldn't have been mad.'

'Yeah,' said Cora, grinning, 'but if he was awake and happy at 3am, you know that Stiles was the reason.'

Malia laughed, and even Elsa cracked a smile, but Laura still felt uneasy. On some level, she's always felt responsible for Derek's romantic history, and while she knew, rationally, that none of it was her fault, that didn't stop her wanting to be the one who fixed it. At twenty, she'd come home from college and teased her sixteen-year-old brother about not having a girlfriend; the next thing she knew, he'd been dating Paige. When Derek had still been serially monogamous at the start of college, it was Laura who told him he needed to try and commit to someone again, and the end result had been Kate. And after  _ that _ , when Derek had been on the brink of swearing off relationships forever, it was Laura who'd told him to get right back on the horse, effectively pushing him towards Jennifer. 

And now, out of nowhere, Derek was dating again – and dating a  _ guy _ , what's more. Not that it was wholly surprising – he'd come out as bisexual in his late teens, to the unanimous support of his family – but all his actual relationships had been with women, and deep down, Laura had always assumed he had a stronger preference for them. But maybe not; maybe that was just so much reductive bullshit on her part. But the fact remained, she still hadn't met Stiles, and given Derek's track record, a part of her insisted that the relationship was too good to be true. Life wasn't a romantic comedy: the helpful stranger you met during a hailstorm seldom if ever turned out to be your soulmate, and moving in with someone less than a month after you'd started dating might look romantic on paper, but that didn't make it a good idea.

But for the moment, all she could do was wait.

 

*

 

The day of the party, Laura arrived early to help set up. Cora was already there, of course, and Malia and Elsa had both arrived by 10am. The preparations were all in order, but as the guests started to arrive – cousins, aunts, uncles and close family friends – Laura couldn't shake her nervousness. Derek and Stiles had apparently set out two days ago with the intention of spending some time at Stiles's father's place beforehand, and as much as Laura felt obscurely satisfied to know that Stiles was the son of an extremely well-respected Sheriff, and was therefore unlikely to be a secret career criminal, she still couldn't stop her nerves.

'A watched pot never boils,' said her mother, appearing out of nowhere.

Laura jumped. 'You startled me,' she said, turning away from the window. 

Talia smiled. 'A mother's prerogative. You've done a wonderful job, darling. I'm very lucky. Now relax, please. The last thing Derek needs is you hovering over him.'

'I wasn't –'

'You were hovering, dear,' said Talia, not unkindly.

Laura hugged her stomach. 'I'm worried about him,' she admitted. 'They moved in together so soon, and after everything he's been through –'

'After everything he's been through,' said her mother, 'I think what Derek most deserves is a little faith. He hasn't rushed into finding someone, and as you've pointed out on more than one occasion, he wasn't even looking. Do you honestly think he'd be this excited about just anyone?'

'It's his first relationship in years, mom,' said Laura. 'I just don't want him to have another bad experience.'

Talia's eyes crinkled. 'Sweetheart,' she said, gently, 'I think you're looking at this the wrong way. Derek was never one for casual commitments. He stopped dating as much because he wanted something real as because he was scared of another mistake. You're looking at Stiles like he's a practice run; like Derek's trying to ease back into dating by going too fast, too soon. But he was never going to  _ date _ , Laura, not the way you always seemed to want him to. He's been waiting for someone special, and if he thinks that's Stiles, I'm not about to pre-judge either of them.' Talia peered out the window, her smile widening. 'There, see? You looked away, and here they are.'

Laura followed her eyeline, watching as Derek's Camaro pulled up in the drive. The car looked the same as ever, but Laura's eyes widened when she realised that the man climbing out of the driver's side wasn't Derek, but Stiles.

'He let him _ drive _ ?' she murmured, faintly incredulous. Derek was obsessive about his car; he barely let his sisters near it, and they were family. 

'As I said,' said Talia, lips twitching. 'Special.'

Silently, they watched the pair approach. Derek was wearing his standard uniform of dark jeans and a Henley; Stiles, though, was wearing black slacks with a white button-down, the sleeves rolled to the elbows to display his fabled tattoos. He was just about Derek's height, but more leanly built, with messy brown hair, an impish face and light brown eyes, the youthfulness of his features belied by the breadth of his shoulders and the obvious strength of his arms. He was laughing at something, head thrown back as Derek put an arm around his waist, dropping a chaste kiss on the side of his neck. 

Laura flushed and looked away, feeling strangely voyeuristic. It wasn't like she'd caught them groping or making out, but there was something about the way Derek was smiling that made her feel like she'd intruded on a private moment.

And then they were at the door, and Talia was welcoming them in, exclaiming over Derek's not-quite-a-beard, as she always did, and pulling Stiles in for a hug. The gesture seemed to surprise him, but he went with it regardless.

'Thank you for having me,' he said, the scratch in his voice less pronounced in person than Laura had expected. 'Your house is gorgeous.' 

'Thank you, Stiles,' said Talia, and when she stepped aside, Laura couldn't wait any more. She'd planned on being restrained, but it had been months since she'd seen her brother, and she flung herself at him with a cry of, 'Derek!', wrapping him in a bear hug.

'Hey, Laura,' he said, hugging her back. 'This is Stiles.' 

'Hi,' said Stiles, wriggling his fingers. He had very nice hands, Laura thought, and as Cora had said, the tattoos suited him. 'It's nice to finally meet you in person.' 

'Likewise,' she said, giving the rest of him a critical once over. And then she smiled – this was, after all, a happy occasion – and waved them into the house. 'Come on in! You can bring your bags up later; introductions first.'

'Oh, goodie,' said Stiles, sounding mildly terrified. 'Out of curiosity, how many Hales are here, exactly?' 

'Right now? About twenty-odd. But the rest will be here soon.'

And with that, she turned, letting the pair of them follow her into the kitchen.

 

*

 

In between chatting, celebrating and steering her father away from the cake, Laura spent the morning watching Stiles like a hawk. So far, she had to admit, he was making a good show of himself: he talked books with her father, politics with her mother, movies with Elsa, video games with Cora and swapped drunken anecdotes with Malia, who'd taken to him instantly. He seemed to get on with everyone, and though Laura had briefly wondered what on Earth that left for her to discuss with him, to her surprise and delight, it turned out that not only did Stiles have a working knowledge of his father's profession, he'd actually worked as a cop himself.

'Why didn't you tell me!' she said to Derek, giving him a sisterly thwack on the arm. 'All this time I've been worrying, you could've said you were dating an ex-badge.'

'I'm hardly that,' said Stiles, blushing, but Laura thought he looked slightly relieved – maybe even a little pleased – and when, ten minutes later, she saw him playing lightsabers with her six-year-old cousin, she realised he'd won her over. 

'All right,' she said, flopping down beside Derek on the lounge. 'You officially have my blessing. I can find no fault with the boy.'

Derek snorted. 'He's twenty-seven, Laura.'

'Even so.'

Their conversation was interrupted by the delighted shrieking of cousin Delia, who was enthusiastically chasing Stiles into the kitchen, brandishing a cardboard tube and yelling, 'Die, rebel scum!'

'Mercy!' Stiles said, his own tube held out in surrender, at which provocation, Delia squealed and tackled him. Stiles went down with a cartoon cry, then promptly burst out laughing as Delia held the tip of her tube to his throat, demanding his unconditional surrender, which Stiles delivered with flamboyant aplomb. Chuckling at the spectacle, Laura turned to speak to Derek, but whatever quip she'd been going to make died before she could voice it. Her brother's expression was one she'd never seen on him before, a fond, open smile that crinkled his eyes, a hitched breath parting his lips. The closest point of reference she had for it was the way her parents sometimes looked at each other, and even that wasn't quite accurate: their looks encoded more than thirty years of companionship, were softened and tempered by time and knowledge of each other, ciphers in a private language that only they spoke. But what she saw in Derek's face was new, hopeful and raw and as trusting as if he'd never been hurt, and it was all for Stiles, who was still laughing with Delia, obliviously collapsed on the kitchen floor.

_ Oh _ , Laura thought, somewhat inadequately. She gulped, trying to think of what to say that would neither betray her realisation nor diminish the fact that she'd had it, but was saved the necessity by a shout from the front door.

'Uncle Peter's here!' said Cora, clearly astonished.

Beside her, Derek snapped out of his trance, head whipping around to Laura. 'I thought you said he wasn't coming?'

'He wasn't!' she hissed back – but there, sure enough, was Peter Hale, their mother's youngest and most disreputable sibling, sauntering into the room with a smirk on his face like knew exactly how disruptive his presence would be, and was deriving considerable private enjoyment from that fact.

'Shit,' said Laura.

Derek looked like he wanted to be sick.

 

*

 

Once upon a time, Peter had been Laura's favourite uncle – had, in truth, been all their favourites, partly because he was the adult closest to their age, but mostly because he knew how to have fun. He was always laughing at something, a gleam in his pale blue eyes as if, by his very existence, he'd successfully pranked the universe and was waiting for it to notice. What none of them had realised was that Peter's geniality concealed a sense of mischief whose darker aspects ran perilously close to chaos, and that, when push came to shove, he'd happily sell out his nearest and dearest for money, power, fame or, for obvious preference, all three.

Which is exactly what he'd done to Derek, a cruelty for which he'd never been forgiven. Careless of his nephew's distress and the family's shock, Peter was the one who'd gone to the tabloids in the wake of Kate's attack, first selling the 'inside story' of Derek's involvement with a rich, older woman, and then accepting a not inconsiderable bribe from the Argent family in exchange for withholding the seedier details. That he'd ostensibly done so to pay off gambling debts that not even Talia had known about exonerated him in no one's eyes. Up until Peter gave his exclusive, the media hadn't known that Derek and the Hales were involved at all; only that Chris Argent's sister had been hospitalised following an 'episode', the nature of which had been pointedly undisclosed. Because of Peter, Derek had been hounded by the press for weeks, and though he'd offered several pat apologies over the years, he was still unwelcome in Talia's house.

But now he was here, and as there were still enough members of the extended family who didn't know what Peter had done – many of whom were also present, and had already seen him arrive – evicting him without causing a scene was impossible. Which was doubtless what he'd been counting on: Talia had her pride, and airing secrets that had been carefully concealed by the pretence of a spat between siblings at a family gathering was beneath it.

Which meant that Laura, like everyone else in the know, was forced to smile and get on with the party.

'Would someone pass the salt?' Peter asked. They were all seated at the massive dinner table – or tables, really; there were so many people present that they'd had to join them together – for a late lunch, and by some trick of timing that Laura had anticipated but been unable to prevent, Peter was sitting opposite Stiles and Derek, the former politely ignoring the air of thinly veiled hostility, the latter wrapped in taciturn silence. 

Cora passed the salt, looking very much like she wanted to murder him with it. 

'Thank you,' said Peter – then turned to Stiles, a questioning eyebrow raised. 'I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met.'

'I'm Stiles,' said Stiles. 'Derek's boyfriend.'

'Derek's _ boyfriend _ !' said Peter, sounding delighted. Derek's shoulders hunched, and though her younger cousins were still eating happily, oblivious to the tension, Laura felt the subtle shift of adult attention drifting Stileswards, waiting to see what happened. 'Well, now. I know I'm out of the loop, but still. That's an unexpected development. Not because you're male, of course,' he added, waving the salt at Stiles's frown, 'I mean that Derek's back on the market at all. I thought he'd opted for celibacy years ago.'

'I'm not  _ on the market _ ,' Derek said tightly, his left hand gripping his fork. 'Being in a relationship is the opposite of that.'

'Oh, don't split hairs,' said Peter, salting his chicken. 'You know what I mean. You've finally lightened up and stopped living like a monk. I should warn you, though,' he added, turning back to Stiles, 'that Derek doesn't have much of a sense of humour, these days. But then, he never really did.'

At the head of the table, Talia stilled, and more people than Laura drew sudden sharp breaths. Even without knowing what Peter had done to earn his sister's enmity, he'd clearly crossed a line. 

Stiles smiled, bright and sunny. 'Actually, Derek has an amazing sense of humour,' he said. 'You're probably just not funny enough to have noticed.'

Malia choked on her drink.

Peter sat back in his chair, appraising Stiles with a freshly minted smirk. 'That's a big claim, considering you've only just met me,' he said. 'I'm really quite the raconteur.' 

'I'm sorry, did you say racketeer?' said Stiles, his own smile sharpening neatly. 'Because, you know, my dad's the Sheriff of Beacon Hills, and I could've sworn I saw him working a case with your name on it. Or maybe that was some other Peter Alexander Hale involved with Deucalion Enterprises.'

All along the table, the sudden stilling of cutlery was audible. Peter's face hardened; he sat forward again, and when he spoke, there was a dangerous edge to his tone. 'You really want to play this game with me, boy?'

'Not for preference, no,' said Stiles, and just like that, his disaffected air was gone, replaced by something calm and unyielding. 'But as you're being an unremitting jackass to the man I love, please be aware that I can and will retaliate on his behalf,  _ alpha _ .' His lips quirked on the final word, and whatever it meant, the way Peter paled declared it an unequivocal trump card. 'Do we understand each other?'

'I believe we do,' said Peter, faintly. He gave a sneering nod to Stiles, as if in resentful acknowledgement of a point well-won, and put down his fork in disgust. 'If you'll excuse me,' he said, and promptly stood, stalking away from the table and out towards the patio.

And Stiles, who couldn't possibly be ignorant of the fact that  _ every single adult _ was now staring at him in startled awe, went right back to eating his chicken, smiling contentedly to himself.

'You love me?' Derek said, his hoarse voice breaking the silence. 

Stiles froze, swallowed his food, then looked at Derek, his brown eyes wide. For a moment, his mouth hung open – and then he smiled, his soft expression the perfect twin to Derek's earlier gaze, and said, 'Yeah, Derek. Of course I love you. I have since the day we met.'

Derek flushed bright red. 'I love you, too,' he choked out, sounding utterly overwhelmed – and then, despite the fact that they were in the middle of a family meal, he cupped Stiles's face in his hands and pulled him in for a very deep, very passionate kiss. 

' _ Woooooo _ !' yelled Malia, thumping her hands on the table, and like it was some sort of signal, everyone started clapping and laughing, Laura herself included. 

'Hear, hear!' said Talia, beaming her approval.

'Get a room!' said Cora, to further gales of laughter, and only then did Stiles and Derek break apart, the both of them blushing bright red.

'Don't worry,' Elsa said, grinning broadly, 'I'll make sure we all have earplugs tonight.'

Stiles made a choking sound and buried his face in Derek's shoulder, shaking with embarrassed laughter that only intensified when Delia, with a child's perfect innocence, asked, 'Why do we need earplugs?'

The entire party collapsed in hysterics; only Laura retained enough composure to smile seriously at her cousin and say, 'Because they'll be kissing so loudly.'

' _ Ohhh _ ,' said Delia, wrinkling her nose. 'Yuck!'

Cora laughed until she cried, the tears running down her cheeks, and in the gleeful chaos that followed, Laura caught Derek's eye and held it, her heart full at the sight of how happy he looked.

_ Keep him _ , she mouthed, and if it was humanly possible, Derek's smile widened even further.

_ I will _ , he mouthed back. 

Laura believed him.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to write a sequel to Cat Got Your Tongue, and then ALL THE FEELINGS happened, and I sort of had to. 
> 
> WHERE DID MY GODDAMN SUNDAY GO?


End file.
